


Miles Apart

by foobar137



Series: AU: Miles Apart [1]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Biology Lab Partners, Breakups, F/M, High School, Isabella never moved to Maple Drive, Prank Wars, School Dances, Summer Festivals, Teenagers, fork in the road, starts Phineas/Adyson and changes to Phineas/Isabella, teenage romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-26 07:42:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1680281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foobar137/pseuds/foobar137
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Isabella never moved in to the house on Maple Drive? What if she was never in Troop 46231? What if she didn’t meet Phineas and Ferb until high school? A tale of an alternate universe, where relationships are not what we’re used to, because Phineas and Isabella grew up miles apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Sabrina06 for being a sounding board and poking holes in this, making it a better story.
> 
> Rated T for teen romance.
> 
> Contains Phineas/Adyson, Isabella/OC, Ferb/Gretchen, background Ginger/Baljeet, Buford/Milly, and Candace/Jeremy, and eventually Phineas/Isabella. (You’re all shocked at that last, I’m sure. It’s so unusual for me.)
> 
> Timeframe: (after prologue) Freshman year of high school, age fourteen.

**Nine years ago** ****

“So it’s down to these two houses,” Aaron Garcia-Shapiro said to his wife, Vivian as they sat on the park bench. “The ranch-style on Maple Drive, and the two-story on Cypress Avenue.”

“Isa really liked Maple," Vivian said, nodding toward their five-year-old daughter, busily climbing the play structure. "But I'm not sure if it was the house or the boys that lived across the street."

Aaron laughed. "I didn't think we'd have to worry about boys for a few more years yet. And those boys looked kind of weird to me. Who lets their five-year-old dye their hair green?"

"The schools are a little better on Cypress, but Maple has a pool."

"I don't know if I want a pool. They're holes in the ground that you throw money into," Aaron said. "Cypress has that spare bedroom. It'd be nice to have a guest room for when relatives visit, or we could turn it into a home office for me."

“Maple would be a much nicer commute for you.”

"Cypress has more space between the houses. More privacy."

"Maple feels like it's more part of a neighborhood, and we can get to know the neighbors better," Vivian countered.

"You like Maple better, don't you?"

Vivian nodded. "You like Cypress better?"

"I do.”

They bounced arguments back and forth for a while, until Vivian laughed and said, "Enough. We're not getting anywhere right now. I don't think either of them is a bad choice. Let's sleep on it tonight and see what we think in the morning. But right now, we need to go get some dinner."

Something told Aaron that they should decide now, but he let himself be convinced to rest on it.

In the morning, he knew that his wife was right; Maple was a better choice. He told her so, and she called the realtor. Halfway through the call, her face fell. “Oh. Should we put in a backup offer, then? Okay. Let’s make an offer on Cypress, then.”

She hung up the phone. “The seller accepted an offer on Maple late last night. I guess it’s Cypress after all.”


	2. First Day Of School

Isabella Garcia-Shapiro walked in the front doors of Danville High School, trying to project more confidence than she had. She'd been well-known at Jefferson Junior High, but four different junior high schools fed into Danville High, and a boundary realignment had sent half the kids from Jefferson to Archer High instead. She waved to Alexandra, who had been second-in-command of her Fireside Girls troop, but Alex was too busy trying to flirt with Ricky to notice. Isabella wouldn't be able to meet up with her own boyfriend, Dave, until fourth period. ****

She found her locker, and stopped short upon recognizing the girl putting books into the next locker over. Short brown hair, pale skin, and a sleeveless shirt, of course - the things that girl had done to her Fireside Girl uniforms were bad enough, and not even the worst things she'd done.

 _No hope for it, I guess. I'll be seeing her every day for the next four years. Just my luck to have the locker next to hers._ "Hey, Adyson," she said, trying not to sound annoyed.

The girl looked up and gave her a catty smile. "Oh, _hi_ , Isabella. I didn't realize that Troop 75309 girls went here too."

Isabella grimaced as she opened her locker. "Some of us. The troop boundaries crossed over the edge into Archer High territory this year."

"Oh, I'm so _sorry_ for you, losing half your troop like that. All of troop 46231 is here," Adyson said smugly.

A tall redheaded boy with a prominent nose came over and gave Adyson a quick kiss. "Hey, Addy," he said, "got to head to French class, but I'll see you at lunch?"

"Absolutely, Phineas," she said giving him another kiss as he headed off.

Isabella's eyes narrowed. "Phineas? Of Phineas and Ferb? The boys who won the Most Patches award for you four years running? He's your boyfriend now?"

Adyson glared at her defensively, her green eyes flashing. "We _earned_ those patches, Isabella, and you know it."

"If we'd had someone helping us like that, we'd have blown past you every year. I still say they need to change the rules on how much ‘help’ you can get."

"You're just jealous that your troop got second place for four years running," Adyson said, closing her locker.

"Because you cheated," Isabella said angrily.

"We did _not_ cheat. Phineas and Ferb helped us by setting things up so we could earn the patches; they didn't do _any_ of the work of actually earning them," Adyson said, turning toward her. "Fireside Girls Regional checked into our patches every year, when _you_ protested, and said we were clear."

"You cheated in spirit, Adyson. You're supposed to earn the patches on your own, not have your _boyfriend_ create a biosphere you can do desert survival in."

"You know, Isabella, I don't really care whether you think we earned them. Ms. Feyersied approved, and ultimately, her opinion trumps yours." Adyson turned on her heel to walk to class.

"This isn't over between us, Sweetwater," Isabella muttered to herself as she quickly put her books in her own locker.

* * *

Isabella didn’t know anyone in her first-period Geometry class. Phineas was in her second-period English class, but she avoided him and he apparently didn’t know who she was. Third-period Art had Alex and Ricky in it, but she knew better than to try prying Alex’s attention away from the boy.

She met up with Dave in fourth period World History; unfortunately, Adyson was in the same class as well, along with her second-in-command, Gretchen. To make matters worse, the green-haired freak who’d helped them out - “Ferb,” and what kind of a name was that? - was there too. She tried to ignore them all as she sat next to Dave. He ran his fingers through his long brown hair and smiled at her, and she smiled back. They’d been going out for just a few months, after knowing each other since elementary school.

She wasn’t sure if she loved him. She liked him a lot, but she’d always thought there was a moment when you looked into your true love’s eyes and you just _knew_. She’d never had a moment like that with Dave. He was nice, and fun, and funny, and she liked him, but there was a spark she wanted that just...wasn’t there.

After World History came lunch, which she spent with Dave and the remnants of her troop, and then Spanish class, which Adyson was in as well; the two of them studiously ignored each other. Finally, time for the final class of the day: a double-length biology class, which would be biology and then gym three days a week.

Gretchen and Ferb were sharing a lab table, talking in low voices, when she entered the classroom. She picked an empty table across the classroom and waited for class to start, trying not to look at them. They looked like they weren’t dating yet, but probably would be soon; Gretchen desperately wanted it, and Ferb didn’t look opposed to the idea, but neither had gotten up the courage to make the first move. She saw Gretchen look up at Ferb with wide eyes, and started suddenly. _That’s the look. She knows. He’s the one for her_ , Isabella thought. Ferb was facing away from her to talk to Gretchen, but she guessed he probably had a similar look on his face.

_Great. Another reason not to like her. She’s got her One True Love, and I’ve got...Dave._

Isabella sighed. She was being too hard on Gretchen, and she knew it. Adyson had been the hypercompetitive one, pushing the troop on and leaning on Phineas and Ferb’s inventions to accomplish the impossible. Gretchen, as assistant leader, had been the organizer and kept everything working. She’d never admit it to either, but Gretchen was a better assistant than Alex had been.

_And, realistically, if they hadn’t had those bizarre inventions to help them along...we’d have taken them. No question._

The teacher entered, and went over the basic classroom setup. “So, I’m going to group you in trios for lab work,” she began. “I’ve chosen the trios, and you’re expected to stick with them through at least the first lab report. If, after that, you really need to switch, then we’ll talk. I’ll read off the list, and please go to the appropriately-numbered table.”

She started reading off names, and Isabella wondered who she’d end up with.

“Table four,” the teacher said, pointing. “Ferb Fletcher, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, and Gretchen Schneider.”

_Oh, that is totally not what I needed._

* * *

Phineas walked down the hallway as the school day ended, holding Adyson’s hand.

“I just need to stop at my locker and drop off books for the night,” she said, then sighed. “I just wish I didn’t have _her_ locker next to mine.”

“Whose?” Phineas asked, confused.

“ _Hers_ ,” she replied, nodding her head in the direction of the girl who was just closing the locker next to Adyson’s. “ _Isabella_ ,” she explained in a bitter voice. “Head of Troop 75309.”

Phineas nodded, understanding. Adyson had complained about the girl for years, but he’d never seen her before. She looked...well, not as evil as Adyson described. Long black hair with a bright pink bow in it, and large, dark blue eyes. She was wearing a light pink blouse and patterned skirt, and he suddenly remembered that he’d seen her in English class. She was attractive enough, although he flushed with embarrassment a bit as he realized it. He tried not to pay enough attention to other girls to notice such things; Adyson was his girlfriend, and he didn’t need to keep window-shopping.

Isabella looked up and apparently saw them approaching; with a grumpy look on her face, she headed toward the exits.

Phineas sighed. She didn’t like him, probably. He really didn’t like it when people disliked him; he probably should have offered to help Isabella’s troop with some patches, but Adyson had always convinced him not to. He’d made plans to help this previous summer, but then Adyson had asked him to go out on a date, and he really couldn’t assist Isabella’s troop in good conscience at that point.

Adyson finished swapping books and closed her locker, then turned to him with a smile. He put his arm around her shoulder, leaning in for a quick kiss before they headed toward the buses.

* * *

Isabella got off the school bus and walked into her house, finding a note from her mother on the table.

**Isa -**

**I need to work late tonight, so you’re on your own for dinner. There’s frozen burritos if you don’t feel like cooking.**

**Te quiero,**

**Mama**

Isabella sighed. Her friends all lived far enough away that she couldn’t really hang out with them - even Dave needed a car, bus, or bike ride to get over here. Another lonely night at home was not what she was looking for, and seeing Ferb and Gretchen’s looks at each other really hadn’t helped her mood. At least Pinky, her Chihuahua, was happy to see her.

Ferb had not at all been what she’d expected; given his weird name and bright green hair, she’d expected a wild boy, but he was the calmest, most collected person she’d ever met, and stunningly quiet to boot. Much as she didn’t want to admit it, having the two of them as her lab partners probably was the best possible thing for her grades - with Ferb’s smarts, her leadership abilities, and Gretchen’s organizational skills, they’d be unstoppable.


	3. Biology Lab

Volleyball tryouts came up later that week, and Isabella made the JV team. Unfortunately, the only other person she knew on the team at all was Ginger, a Japanese-American girl from Adyson’s troop. The two of them mostly ignored each other where they could. ****

Dave stopped by toward the end of a practice, waiting for her so they could ride the bus home together, and Ginger gave her a jealous look.

“You’re so lucky,” Ginger said. “You’ve got a boyfriend.”

Isabella shrugged. “Is there a particular boy you want?”

Ginger sighed dreamily. “His name is Baljeet. He’s so smart, and conscientious, and organized, and cute...”

“So ask him out. The first dance is apparently girls-choice.”

Ginger’s eyes widened. “I...couldn’t.”

“Get someone to back you up. Go talk to Gretchen and double-date with her and Ferb.”

“Is Gretchen going to ask Ferb finally?”

Isabella rolled her eyes. “I hope so. I’m lab partners with them, and maybe it’ll get them to stop making googly-eyes at each other all class.”

Ginger laughed. “I’ll talk to Gretchen tonight. Maybe this will work for us. Thanks!”

* * *

The next day, Gretchen walked into World History class nervously, with Ginger pushing her along. “I did my part. Your turn,” Ginger was saying.

Gretchen nodded and walked up to Ferb’s desk. “...ummmmm...so Ginger and Baljeet are going to the dance next weekend, and they were wondering if you and I’d be willing to double-date with them....?” she asked hesitantly.

Ferb smiled up at her and emphatically nodded his head. Gretchen looked like she was barely suppressing a squeal as Ginger patted her on the back and headed off to her own class. With a smile at Ferb, Gretchen walked over to Isabella’s desk. “I understand I have you to thank for this idea. How did you know?”

"You two weren't very subtle," Isabella said with a smile. A few rows over, Adyson glared at her, then turned away.

As Gretchen found her seat, Dave leaned over to talk to Isabella. "That was really nice of you. Wasn't she in that troop that kept beating you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, she was Adyson's second-in-command. She's my lab partner in bio now, though, so...probably a good idea to help her out where I can."

* * *

Their first lab report was assigned in biology that afternoon, so Isabella, Gretchen, and Ferb tried to figure out a time and a place to get together to work on it.

"Ferb's place is probably the closest to central that we've got," Gretchen said after they compared where they lived. "He's at least between the two of us."

Isabella nodded. "That's fine. When works for you? I can do tonight but not tomorrow or the day after."

"Tonight's fine at my end. Ferb?" Gretchen asked.

Ferb nodded.

"Sounds good. I'll send my mom a text saying I'll be late, and catch the bus over there. I think I can catch the #55 cross-town bus to get home easily enough." Isabella pulled out her phone and started sending the message.

They finished gathering the data for their lab report, and headed out to catch the school bus. Gretchen and Ferb took a seat together; Isabella grabbed the seat in front of them so she didn't have to watch. From the whispers she heard, they were sorting out their new relationship, and she felt a sudden pang of jealousy. She hadn't even told Dave what she was doing, because they had no plans to get together tonight anyway.

A blur of motion crashed into the seat next to her, leaning over the back of the seat. "Hey Ferb, hey Gretchen, what’s up?” Phineas said. He glanced over at Isabella. “Mind if I sit here?”

She shook her head, and he smiled and turned back to the couple behind them. “You two are sitting awfully close together,” Phineas continued. “What’s up?”

Ferb glared at him as Gretchen blushed a bright red. “They’re going to the dance together,” Isabella said.

“Ferb, you sly dog! About time you got around to...wait, this is a girl’s choice dance, isn’t it? Good job, Gretchen!”

Gretchen asked, “Where’s Adyson?” in what Isabella thought was a transparent attempt to distract the boy; apparently it worked, as he seemed to deflate a bit.

“She had to go to the library for some research for an Earth Science paper,” he said. He turned to Isabella. “Hi! I’m Phineas. Nice to meet you.”

“Isabella,” she said. “Ferb and Gretchen’s lab partner in biology.”

“You’re in English class with me?”

She nodded as the bus driver yelled, “Phineas! Sit _down_!”

With an embarrassed smile, Phineas turned and sat on the bus seat. He looked over at Isabella, sharp blue eyes that bored straight through her soul. “Funny. You don’t look evil,” he said.

Isabella blinked. “Excuse me?”

“From what Adyson always said about you, your favorite activity is trying to ruin her life.” He peered at her, smiling. “Perhaps she was exaggerating a bit.”

“Wait, how did you know I was _that_ Isabella?”

“Adyson pointed you out to me, and then Ferb said you were his lab partner,” he shrugged. “Anyway, it is nice to meet you, and I’m sorry we made your life difficult. We were just trying to help out our friends; we’d have helped you too if you’d asked.”

Isabella sat back and listened to this strange boy talk non-stop for the rest of the bus ride.

Phineas led the group into his house and shouted, “Mom, we’re home!” A tall, red-haired woman looked in from the kitchen and said, “Hi boys. Oh, hi, Gretchen. And who’s your new friend?”

“This is Isabella. She was Adyson’s arch-rival, but now she’s Ferb and Gretchen’s lab partner in bio.”

“O...kaaaaay. Well, it’s nice to meet you, Isabella. I’m Linda Flynn-Fletcher, the boys’ mother. The kitchen table’s open if you’d like to take that over for whatever work you need to do.”

Isabella took a seat and looked across at Ferb, then over at Phineas in the living room reading his algebra textbook. “Flynn-Fletcher. Stepbrothers, then?” she asked Ferb.

Ferb nodded, and Gretchen said, “Linda is Phineas and his older sister’s biological mother. Ferb’s biological father is Lawrence; he’s probably still at the antique store.”

Isabella suppressed a burst of jealousy. Her father had died in a car crash just before her sixth birthday, and her mother had never tried dating again. The idea of having two parents around sounded wonderful, and these boys didn’t even realize how good they had it.

“Who wants some snacks?” Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher asked, bringing over a plate of cookies, which they helped themselves to.

A wall-eyed teal platypus wandered into the room and chattered at them. “Oh, there you are, Perry,” Gretchen said.

From the living room, Phineas said, “That’s Perry. He’s a platypus. They don’t do much.”

They finished up the lab report, and Ferb offered to type it up for them. Isabella gathered her things and prepared to catch a bus home.

“Isabella, would you like a ride home?” Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher asked. “Gretchen’s father asked me to bring her home, so one more is no problem.”

“That would be very nice, thank you,” Isabella said, and the older woman led the two girls out to the car.

On the way, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher turned to Gretchen. “So, Phineas said you asked Ferb to the dance?” Gretchen nodded silently, and the red-haired woman continued. “How nice! Let me know if I need to give you two a ride, then. I think I’m already bringing Phineas and Adyson there. You know, it’s really about time you two started dating, the way you’ve been eyeing each other. I mean, even _I_ noticed.”

Isabella felt a twinge of sympathy for Gretchen, who looked like she wanted to curl up into a little ball and die of embarrassment. They soon reached Gretchen’s house and dropped her off, and Isabella gave Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher directions to Cypress Avenue.

“So...Adyson’s arch-rival?”

Isabella swallowed. “Sort of. I led another Fireside Girls troop, and we came in second to Adyson’s troop in the ‘most patches’ award every year. Mostly because of the help your sons gave them.”

“Oh, I see. So, not romantic rivals or anything like that. I was worried that you two were fighting over Phineas.”

Isabella laughed. “No, not at all. I have a boyfriend. His name is Dave.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Looks like both my boys have found girlfriends now. And just a couple years ago, I didn’t figure either of them ever would look at a girl like that. Phineas especially - he was so clueless for a while. But then he was spending a lot of time with Adyson, and she asked him on a date this past summer, and it just went from there.”

Isabella nodded as she realized where Phineas had gotten his talkativeness from.

They arrived at Isabella’s house; her mother wasn’t home yet. “Thank you for the ride,” Isabella said.

“You’re welcome. Feel free to stop by whenever you’d like - we’re kind of used to being the hangout for the whole neighborhood at this point.”

Isabella smiled at her. “Thank you, but I don't know that Adyson would appreciate that.”

“It’s my house, not Adyson’s, and I say you’re welcome to stop by.”

“Thank you very much,” Isabella said.


	4. The Dance

Phineas put his arm around Adyson as they waited for Ferb to retrieve Gretchen. She gave him a sly smile, and leaned over into him. “I’m really looking forward to this,” she said. ****

He smiled at her and hugged her tighter. “Our first dance. Thank you for asking me.”

“Oh, like I was going to ask anyone else.”

He laughed. “I would hope not. But you could have decided you didn’t want to go.”

“Nah, this sounded like too much fun. I wanted to get at least one in before...” she trailed off.

“Before what?”

They were interrupted as Ferb returned with Gretchen, who buckled into the middle row of Linda’s minivan.

Phineas looked over at Adyson as his mother drove them along. Her black dress was short and sleeveless, as he’d expected, and he’d worn a jacket primarily because he figured she’d need to borrow it by the end of the night. He still wondered what she saw in him, but whatever it was, he needed to keep it up.

“So who else is going?” Linda asked.

“Technically, we’re double-dating with Ginger and Baljeet,” Gretchen said, holding Ferb’s hand. “And Milly asked Buford, and the new girl Theresa asked Irving.”

“Wow, somebody asked Irving? Did she know what she was getting into?” Phineas asked, and Adyson smothered a laugh behind her hand.

“She actually seems to like him,” Gretchen said. “She’s the one who always wears the Space Adventure T-shirts to school.”

“Oh, _her_ ,” Adyson said. “Yeah, she’d be a great fit for him.”

Gretchen said, “She was really vexed that Ginger asked Baljeet first. Sixteenth-level Space Adventure trivia masters are few and far between. But apparently she decided that Irving was a suitable replacement.”

Linda pulled up to the curb by the school gym, and the couples started exiting the car. “Oh, look, there’s Ferb and Gretchen’s lab partner,” she said.

Phineas looked up, and indeed, Isabella was getting out of the car in front of them. A tall tanned boy with long brown hair, wearing a grey jacket and slacks, was holding her hand as she climbed out wearing a pale pink dress that came down just below her knees; her hair bow was the same color.

“Marvelous,” Adyson said, rolling her eyes. Phineas chuckled.

* * *

Isabella sat off to one side as Dave laughed with his friends. She hadn’t been seeing as much of him since school started - they didn’t have many classes together, and he’d only waited for her after practice that one time, so it seemed like they only dated on weekends now.

Shaking her head at another of his jokes, she looked around the room. Adyson and Phineas were out on the floor, dancing to an energetic beat. Ginger was out there as well, with a curly-haired Indian boy who must be Baljeet. Alex had finally gotten up the nerve to ask Ricky to the dance, and the two of them were just heading off the dance floor, breathing heavily and holding hands.

Ferb and Gretchen were leaning up against a nearby wall; they weren’t talking, but instead just gazing into each other’s eyes. It almost made Isabella want to gag from the sickening sweetness of it. Much as she wanted that moment where she just _knew_ that she’d found her true love, she hoped she could get it without that sort of mindless bliss and descent into fantasyland.

The song ended, and a slower one started up. She took Dave’s hand and pulled him toward the dance floor; he gave a token resistance, then nodded and followed her out to the floor. His arms wrapped around her back as she slid her arms around his neck, and they slowly swayed to the music.

“You okay?” he asked. “You seem distracted.”

She nodded wordlessly, pulling his face down for a perfunctory kiss.

* * *

Phineas watched Ferb and Gretchen settle into the middle seat of the minivan together. Ferb put his arm around her shoulder, and she leaned into him with a soft sigh. Phineas chuckled and squeezed Adyson, his own arm resting across her jacket-covered shoulders.

“So are you two ‘an item’ now?” Linda asked. Phineas couldn’t see if Ferb and Gretchen were blushing, but he suspected they were.

“We talked about it, and we’re going to date each other. Is...that okay?” Gretchen answered hesitantly.

“That’s fine,” Linda said. “You seem to be good for each other.”

Phineas heard Ferb exhale in relief.

* * *

Isabella climbed onto the bus toward the Flynn-Fletcher house again. “Why are  _you_ on this bus?” Adyson asked, looking up from her seat. “You don’t live in this direction.”

Isabella sat down in the seat across the aisle from her. “I’m working with Ferb and Gretchen on our biology lab.”

Adyson gave her a distasteful sneer and sank down in the seat, waiting for Phineas.

* * *

Phineas grabbed a couple cookies and headed into the living room, leaving Ferb and his lab partners working in the kitchen. He started to call out to Adyson, but stopped as he saw her talking to his mother.

"She seems nice to me, Adyson," his mother was saying. "And she's Ferb's lab partner, and this is really the best place for them to work on their lab reports."

"I don’t like having her around,” Adyson said.

“I love you like a daughter, Adyson, but Isabella is welcome in _my_ house until further notice,” Linda said. “Ferb’s education is more important to me than your dislike for the girl.”

“Adyson, want a cookie?” Phineas interrupted, holding up his prizes.

Adyson looked over, embarrassed, and said, “Sure.”

As he led her up to his room, Phineas sighed in relief.

* * *

“Can we talk for a minute, Dave?” Isabella asked as they met up while waiting for their buses after school.

Dave nodded in response. Isabella took a deep breath; she’d been trying to figure out how to do this for a week now, and had finally decided to just do it and see what happened.

“We don’t seem to want to meet up any more. We run into each other in class, and occasionally on the weekend, but...I think we’re just drifting apart. I don’t...I think it’d be better if we broke up.”

There. She’d laid it out there. She wasn’t sure how she wanted him to react now.

His lips pressed together in a frown - lips she’d just kissed the day before, and now might never again. “I think you’re right,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”

Resignation hadn’t been what she expected. An argument or an attempt to win her back, or maybe delight at being free of her, but not this.

“I’m sorry too,” she said. “Can we still be friends?”

“Of course. Is there anyone in particular you’re looking at next?”

She shook her head. “No, nobody. You?”

He shrugged. “Not really.”

Isabella’s bus pulled up. “I need to go.” She paused, looking at him for a moment. “You’ll always be special to me, you know.”

“And likewise. Take care of yourself, okay?”

She nodded, and headed for her bus. As it pulled away, she saw him waiting for his own with a wistful expression.

* * *

“You stay away from my boyfriend, Isabella,” Adyson muttered as Isabella walked past, exiting the bathroom in the Flynn-Fletcher house.

Isabella considered just ignoring it, but couldn’t bring herself to. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Stay away from Phineas.”

“Adyson, I’m here to work on my bio lab. With Ferb. Your boyfriend isn’t even in the picture here.”

“I know your type. You dumped your boyfriend, and now you’re after mine.”

Isabella stared at Adyson. “I have no idea where you get this sort of idea from. Seriously, I’m not stealing your boyfriend. Get over yourself.”

“Why don’t we work on this downstairs,” Ferb suggested hastily, and Isabella followed Ferb and Gretchen down to Ferb’s new basement room, shaking her head.

“I should have moved down here long ago,” Ferb said. “It’s so much quieter.”

“And more private,” Gretchen added with a barely-suppressed grin.

They were hunched over their drawings, trying to figure out how best to display what they’d seen in their dissections, when a quiet bell rang with a _*glingleglingle*_. Ferb and Gretchen started, then Gretchen laughed as Ferb looked embarrassed.

“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t consider that in the sensors.”

Isabella gave him a confused look, then looked over toward the door as she heard footsteps running down the stairs. There was a knock on the door, and Phineas said, “Hey, guys, Mom said to tell you there’s treats in the kitchen if you want ‘em.” They heard him run back up the stairs.

“Sensors?” Isabella asked.

With a mischievous grin, Gretchen said, “He built an alarm system so that if he and I are down here, and somebody comes down the stairs, a bell goes off so we know they’re coming. He forgot to have it be if it’s _just_ the two of us, though.”

“I still want to know why we get the false alarms, though,” Ferb said.

“Maybe it’s Perry?” Gretchen said.


	5. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Phineas walked into the house, stunned, on a chilly December evening.  _I need to talk to someone_ , was the only coherent thought he could form. He stumbled toward the kitchen, where his mother was preparing dinner while Ferb, Gretchen and Isabella worked on a lab report at the kitchen table. ****

“What happened?” his mother said, looking up and seeing his expression.

Phineas took a deep breath. “Adyson...Addy...she...” He choked back a sob. “She broke up with me.”

“What?!” Gretchen yelled, sitting up in her seat. “Why?”

“Oh, honey,” his mother said, giving him a hug. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Did she say why?”

Phineas took a deep breath, calming down as his mother hugged him. “She...she...” He took another deep breath. “She said she didn’t want to get to college and have only had one boyfriend. She...it’s not me, it’s her, she said.” He pushed back from his mother, and she let him go.

He looked over at the table. Ferb looked shocked, while Gretchen looked confused and Isabella looked...if he had to pick a word, he’d say ‘guilty’. He remembered that she’d broken up with her own boyfriend a couple months ago.

His eyes narrowed a bit as he saw Isabella. _I could ask her out, I suppose. She’s pretty and seems nice._

_Adyson would be furious with me. She’d be hurt by my ‘betrayal’._

_Which would be the main reason to do it._

He shook his head. Isabella deserved better than to be used as a pawn in revenge against Adyson.

“Here, I was saving this pie for after dinner, but I think under the circumstances we can get into it a bit early if you think it’ll help,” his mother said.

* * *

The next day, at school, Isabella was walking toward her locker when she saw Gretchen walk up behind Adyson with blood in her eye.

“What was that all about, Adyson?” Gretchen said intently.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. A week ago, you were proclaiming to anyone who’d listen how much you loved Phineas. And then you dumped him?”

Isabella decided she didn’t need to get to her locker quite _that_ quickly, and ducked around the corner where she could listen without being seen.

“I didn’t _dump_ him. I just...told him it was time for us to see other people. For me to see other people.”

“Why?” Gretchen asked.

“Because I don’t want to be one of those lame prissy girls who date one guy all through high school, and then they do the long-distance relationship thing in college, only to have it blow up in their face. Because that’s what happens. And then you’re there, you’ve wasted all of high school and half of college on some guy half the country away.”

“You consider the time you spent with Phineas _wasted_? After everything he did for you?”

Adyson snorted loud enough for Isabella to hear. “No, I don’t consider it wasted. He’s a great guy. But he’s not what I want any more. And so spending further time on him...that would be wasting it.”

“I thought I knew you, Adyson,” Gretchen said, confusion in her voice.

“I’m still the same Adyson. Look, I’m not telling you to ditch Ferb. You want to go off with him, get married, have green-haired babies, be my guest. I’m not ready to be tied down like that yet.”

Isabella heard the locker slam shut, and then Adyson walked past, not seeing her. Isabella turned the corner again, and Gretchen was standing in the middle of the hall with a hurt and puzzled expression on her face.

Gretchen saw her, then shrugged. “You heard, I assume.”

Isabella nodded. “Ferb’s hair is naturally green?”

Gretchen laughed. “You didn’t know? Yeah, apparently he got it from his mother. He tried growing a beard once, and...well, it’s not a good look on him. He likes to describe it as mossy, but it looks more like mold to me.”

* * *

Isabella blearily opened her locker and shoved her books inside. She'd been up too late working on an English paper, and the alarm clock this morning had been one of the least pleasant sounds she'd ever heard.

Adyson opened her locker with a *clunk*, then suddenly said, "What the..."

Isabella looked over. The entire locker had been lined in aluminum foil. Everything inside it had been wrapped in foil as well. Isabella laughed at the silvery sight, earning her a glare from Adyson.

"Did you do this?" Adyson asked angrily.

Isabella shook her head. "Nope. No idea who did."

"I've got an idea," Adyson said darkly.

* * *

"Phineas!" Adyson shouted as she approached the lunch table.

Phineas looked up from where he was talking to Ferb and Gretchen. "What?" he asked, puzzled.

"Did you mess with my locker?" she demanded. People at nearby tables were looking at them, Phineas saw.

He shook his head as Ferb tried to smother a smirk. Gretchen rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

Adyson's eyes narrowed as she looked at Ferb. "You did it, then?"

Ferb nodded, grinning viciously. "You deserved it."

Adyson glared at him flatly. "We'll see. You'll regret that." She turned and stomped off in a huff.

Phineas looked at Ferb. "What did you do?"

"I may have wrapped everything in her locker in aluminium foil," Ferb said with a grin.

"Why?"

"I couldn't just let her get away with what she'd done," Ferb said.

"Ferb, let it drop, please," Phineas said. "It's not your problem."

"If you think I'm going to let some...girl...use my brother and get away scot-free, you'd better think again," Ferb said in a serious voice.

* * *

Phineas followed Ferb toward his locker on the first day back from Christmas vacation. "I still think the mechanical snowman was the best thing we did this vacation," Phineas said.

Ferb stopped dead in the hallway, looking at his locker. Phineas looked over, confused.

The entire locker door had been covered in My Little Pony art and stickers, with a giant Pinkie Pie painted in the center. Reluctantly, Ferb went over to the locker and opened it. Several other students were eyeing it and snickering. Ferb poked at the decorations, but it was clear they'd been be almost impossible to remove. Fortunately, it looked like the culprit hadn't gotten inside the locker.

"Mister Fletcher," a refined British voice said behind them. "Is this your locker?"

Phineas looked back and saw Mrs. Atherton, Ferb's English teacher, approaching. He winced; he knew she was Ferb's favorite teacher, and that Ferb wanted to impress her with his taste and refinement.

Ferb nodded reluctantly.

"You are aware of the rules on locker decoration, I'm sure. This is completely unacceptable," Mrs. Atherton said, and Phineas saw Ferb shrink down in embarrassment. "I expected better from you, Mister Fletcher. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" she asked.

"I didn't do this," Ferb said simply.

"A likely story," Mrs. Atherton said. "You... _bronies_ ," she said distastefully, "seem to think rules don't apply to you. I shall see you after school today, and you shall clean this...'art'...off of your locker." She turned away and stalked down the hallway.

"Ooh, Ferb, you should have known better than to do that to your locker," Adyson said from one side. "Mrs. Atherton really doesn't like ponies much." She grinned as she turned around and headed away.

Ferb's eyes burned. "You'll pay for this, Adyson," he murmured coldly.

* * *

Isabella almost missed it; if she hadn’t happened to be looking right at Adyson, she’d have never seen it. Adyson was talking to Sasha about her plans to track down some guy named Steve after school so she could ask him to next week’s Valentine’s Day dance. A slight movement near Adyson’s purse caught her eye; Adyson’s lipstick was peeking over the edge of the purse, and then it was suddenly gone, zipped over to Ferb’s seat in the back of the room, pulled by a tiny tractor beam. Isabella looked back at Ferb, puzzled, and caught him gently tossing another lipstick into Adyson’s purse; it landed perfectly inside.

Isabella pondered whether to say anything, but decided not to. Maybe she’d ask Ferb what was up in biology class today.

* * *

Isabella closed her locker and got ready to head home. She was puzzled to see a clown in a sleeveless dress storming in her direction; the clown had white face paint made up in a sad face. She wondered why the clown had plain brown hair instead of a wig, and then she suddenly realized that it wasn’t a clown, it was Adyson. Isabella suddenly remembered what Ferb had said he’d done - something about nanobots to spread the lipstick around into more of her face.

Adyson slammed her locker door open, then glared at Isabella. “Tell _Fletcher_ that I will _get him_ for this,” she said through clenched teeth.

Isabella stifled a giggle, nodded, and ran toward the buses quickly before she burst out laughing.

* * *

“Ferb, we need to hurry if we’re going to catch the bus,” Phineas said. “Let’s grab your books and go.”

Ferb opened his locker, then stopped cold. Taking a deep breath, he said, “Phineas? Did we give Adyson one of the cans of regenerating expansion foam after we finished the space shuttle?”

Phineas thought for a moment. “Maybe? Why are you asking me now? We need to go.”

Ferb opened his locker wide. Phineas recognized the white foam that filled the entire inside of the locker. Ferb reached out and pulled out a chunk of rubbery foam; as they watched, the foam seemed to regrow itself and repair the hole.

“Yeah, I think Adyson did end up with one can,” Phineas said quietly.

“Well, now we know what she did with it.”

* * *

Isabella sighed. It was the day before the Valentine’s Day dance, and she didn’t have anyone to go with. She opened her locker, grabbing the books she needed for tonight’s homework.

Adyson bounced over to her own locker. “Hiiiii, Isabella,” she said, cheerfully.

Isabella glared at her and closed her locker.

Adyson laughed and unlocked her locker. It snapped open, and a fine mist sprayed out. It smelled horrendous, like a mix of skunk and vomit, with overtones of rotten fish. It hit Adyson square-on.

“Augh!” Adyson shouted, covering her nose, and Isabella threw herself back. She didn’t think she’d been hit by the vile spray, but the odor was so strong she couldn’t tell. If she had, she could only hope it would wash out.

Pinching her nose shut, Adyson said, “I’m gonna kill him.”

Isabella could only nod. “I think this is starting to go too far.”

* * *

"I don't know, Ferb. Why should I go to the dance?" Phineas asked. "I mean, it's a Valentine's Day dance, and I haven't had a girlfriend for two months now."

"Maybe you can fix that," Ferb said as he reached over to straighten Phineas's tie.

"I don't know if I want to yet," Phineas said quietly.

"I'm sure there will be other unattached people there," their mother said from the couch.

"Yeah, tons of single girls go to the Valentine's Day dance," Phineas muttered.

* * *

Ferb was off dancing with Gretchen, and Phineas stood at the punch bowl. There were some single girls there after all, but they all seemed to be traveling in packs.  _Worst. Dance. Ever,_ he thought.

He glanced up at a new couple coming in, and his breath caught. Adyson was hanging on the arm of some guy he didn't recognize. He was suddenly glad his cup was empty, because he'd crushed it in his hand without realizing it.

He looked around himself quickly, and spotted Milly hanging out with Buford. "Who's that Adyson's with?" he asked them quietly.

Buford looked up. "His name's Steve. Coupl’a years older’n us. He hangs out in the auto shop most'a the time. Wants to be a racer."

"Is he...will he be good to her?" Phineas whispered.

Buford rolled his eyes. "Why do you care?"

Milly giggled.

"It's just..." Phineas began. "She's still important to me."

"Dinner Bell, it's over. You ain’t gettin' her back."

Phineas turned to Buford. "I know that. Nobody knows that better than I do. But I used to love her, and I still don't want her getting hurt."

Milly shook her head. "Phineas, you are far too nice for your own good."

“‘Specially after the stuff she’s been pullin’ recently,” Buford added darkly. “Yeah, he’s a pretty good guy, I heard. Better'n she deserves.”

“Thanks, Buford. That’s what I needed to hear.”

* * *

"Phineas? Can we talk for a minute?" Adyson said, walking up to him as he sat to one side of the dance floor.

He looked up at her and shrugged. "If you want. What's up?"

"Can we call a truce?"

"I'm not the one you need to talk to."

She rolled her eyes. "Can you not encourage him?"

"You need to talk to Ferb. I’m staying out of this."

Adyson sighed. "He's so hard to talk to, though."

"Only to people who hurt those I care for," Ferb said from behind her.

"Look, I'm sorry," she said, turning around. "Maybe I should have let him down more easily, but what would you have had me do? Keep going out with him when I knew I was going to break up with him? I thought it'd be like pulling off a bandage. Do it quick, get it over with, get on with life."

Ferb stared at her silently for a moment, then nodded. "A fair point."

"Truce?" she asked. “You got the last shot in, I’m willing to let it lie where it is. If we keep this up, we’re going to get more collateral damage.”

"Please, Ferb?" Phineas asked. "This isn't even about me any more, and somebody's going to get hurt. Isabella said you almost got her with the odor spray yesterday."

"Truce," Ferb agreed after a moment’s thought.

* * *

Isabella got over to the corner of the lunch table where she sat with Louisa. The rest of their Fireside Girls group had drifted off over the year: Dave had stopped sitting with them when she broke up with him, Alex had gone off with Ricky’s friends, and Melanie had started hanging out with the band crowd.

Louisa wasn’t there, and the corner was taken by the football players who they’d shared the table with. Isabella looked around, and spotted Louisa with another group of girls. Isabella sighed and looked around for somewhere to eat her lunch.

She saw Phineas, Ferb, and Gretchen over at another table, with a couple open seats around them. Phineas was talking animatedly about something, while Ferb rolled his eyes and Gretchen shook her head.

“Mind if I grab this seat?” Isabella asked, taking the seat next to Phineas.

“No, no I don’t,” Phineas said, and continued telling Ferb about his plans to build a vacation resort over spring break, getting Isabella to join in with ideas as well.

* * *

“Would you like a ride home tonight, Isabella?” Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher asked as they finished up their last biology lab report.

“Actually, my mother’s going to pick me up. She should be by in just a few minutes,” Isabella said.

The doorbell rang, and Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher opened the door. Isabella's mother stood there, still dressed up from work. "Hi, I'm here to pick up Isabella?" she asked.

"Hi, come on in, they're just finishing. I'm Linda Flynn-Fletcher," Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher said.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Vivian Garcia-Shapiro," Isabella's mother said, coming inside.

The two mothers chatted as Isabella helped Ferb and Gretchen put the finishing touches on their lab report. Finally, they declared it done.

"Okay, Mama, ready when you are," Isabella said, gathering up her books.

"Just a minute," her mother said, talking to Ferb's mother about her jazz quartet.

Ferb shook his head and sat back, as did Gretchen. "She'll be a while," he said.

After a few more minutes, Isabella's mother finally started getting ready to leave. They paused at the door, as Isabella's mother looked intently at the house across the street. "I think we looked into buying that house, actually," she said, pointing to it.

"Oh, really?" Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher said. "What happened?"

"Somebody else bought it before we could."

Isabella looked at her mother, puzzled. "So we could have lived here?"

"Oh, yes. Just think how much that would have changed things. Instead of butting heads with that Adyson girl, you two would have been in the same troop."

"And I would have had Phineas and Ferb helping me," Isabella said quietly. "We would have won every single year."

Ferb had followed them to the door. "Indeed. With your leadership, Adyson's drive, and my and Phineas's desire to help, no other troop would have stood a chance," he said.

Shaking her head, Isabella followed her mother to the car.


	6. The First Day of Summer

“So, are you going to be at Phineas and Ferb’s tomorrow?” Gretchen asked Isabella in biology class on the last day of school. ****

“Why? There’s no patches to work for any more,” Isabella answered.

Gretchen laughed. “They didn’t just help us with patches. They wanted to do something cool every day. It’s just that a lot of the time, helping us with patches was their cool thing for the day.”

Isabella looked at her, confused.

“It’s like this - Phineas and Ferb would be trying to figure out what to do for the day. Adyson would mention, oh, I don’t know. We don’t have our desert survival patch. And Phineas would say, ‘Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today. Let’s build a desert biosphere.’ And then we’d get the patch, and the biosphere would mysteriously vanish.”

“So their goal wasn’t helping you guys get patches?” Isabella asked suspiciously, looking at Ferb. “Because Adyson liked to say she had you guys at her beck and call.”

Ferb finally spoke up. “The goal was originally to have interesting things to talk about for the obligatory ‘what I did on my summer vacation’ paper. And then, it just became something we did every day in the summer.”

“Huh. So what’s the plan for tomorrow, then?” Isabella asked.

“We try not to plan too far ahead,” Ferb said, “but traditionally we’ve begun the summer with a rollercoaster.”

“I don’t know how you’re going to top last year’s subterranean coaster,” Gretchen said.

Ferb grinned enigmatically. “Neither do I. But I trust Phineas will think of something.”

* * *

Isabella’s mother dropped her off on Maple Drive on her way to work. A bit hesitantly, she opened the gate to the spacious back yard. Phineas and Ferb were sitting with their backs against a large tree; Gretchen was sitting on Ferb’s lap, wrapped in his arms. Ginger and Baljeet stood nearby, holding hands and talking to Phineas. A large, muscular boy in a black skull-emblazoned shirt leaned up against the fence casually.

“What’cha doing?” she asked, curious.

Phineas grinned. “Trying to figure out what to do today. _Some_ people,” he nodded his head toward the muscular boy, “think we should repeat one of our earlier coasters.”

“I’m just sayin’, the tunnel coaster from last year was pretty dang cool,” the boy said. “Buford van Stomm,” he said, turning to Isabella. “Ex-bully and provider of protection.”

“Isabella Garcia-Shapiro. Ferb and Gretchen’s lab partner, Ginger’s teammate, and Adyson’s arch-enemy,” Isabella said, shaking his extended hand.

The boy raised an eyebrow. “Oh, right. Well, given what she’s done to my friends, an arch-enemy of Adyson is a friend of mine these days. Nice to meetcha.”

“As I was saying,” Phineas said, “ _some_ people don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. We can’t reuse an idea for the first day of summer. We need something new, we...hey, wait. Gravity. That’s it! Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today!”

Ferb nodded, and reluctantly shifted Gretchen off his lap as they stood up.

“You start working on the construction ship, and I’ll start working on a track layout,” Phineas said.

The gate banged open, and a curly-brown-haired girl Isabella vaguely recognized as being in Adyson’s Fireside Girls troop ran through. “Sorry I’m late,” she said. “What’d I miss?”

“Nothing much. We had the ‘I know what we’re going to do today’ but not much more,” Ginger said.

“Oh, cool. In that case...where’s Perry?” the girl said.

Everyone looked around, and a faint tune seemed stuck in the air, but Isabella couldn’t place it.

“Why do you ask?” Isabella said.

The girl shrugged. “It’s just traditional. He usually shows up just after things disappear.”

Isabella laughed. “You people are weird. I’m Isabella, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Milly. Nice to meet you too.”

Buford came up behind Milly and squeezed her tight. “Missed you,” he said gruffly.

“Missed you too,” she said, turning her face up and over her shoulder toward the self-proclaimed ex-bully.

“So if we are weird,” Baljeet said, “and yet you are still here...does that not make you weird as well?”

“I never claimed to be normal,” Isabella said.

* * *

“So, if you’ll remember, two years ago we tried a lunar rollercoaster, but it didn’t work as well as we hoped because the gravity was too low,” Phineas began as he prepared to unveil the first project of the summer.

“And then aliens attacked, so we had to turn the coaster cars into snub fighters to attack their moon-like space station before they could blow up the earth,” Ginger added.

Phineas waved his hand at her. “Yes, yes, that’s all past. Today’s idea is different. We’re building a roller coaster near Jupiter, which has a surface gravity of about two and a half times Earth’s. We think with the higher gravity, we can get some really impressive dips and turns.”

Isabella seemed taken aback by this, and asked, “Aren’t you a little young to be building roller coasters on other planets?”

Phineas flashed her a grin. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

* * *

Isabella had to admit, the boys had done everything they’d planned and then some. The coaster hovered over part of Jupiter, and the spaceship they’d ridden out sat docked to the entrance. The little two-person cars on the coaster were open, so they had to put on spacesuits to ride. Ferb and Gretchen took the first car, then Ginger and Baljeet. Buford had a bit of trouble squeezing in next to Milly, but they managed.

Finally, it was just her and Phineas and the last car. He gestured her toward it, and his voice came over the suit radio. “After you.”

With a giggle, she climbed into the coaster car; he took a seat next to her, and after pulling the lap bar down, the coaster took off. It wove through the clouds high in Jupiter’s atmosphere, pulling them down faster than Earth ever could and then rocketing them back up into loops and turns. She found herself leaning against Phineas as they turned some sharp corners; a quick glance showed he was blushing, and she felt her own cheeks getting warm.

_No. Not happening. The last thing I need is to steal Adyson’s ex-boyfriend. He’s totally not my type._

Suddenly, a green beam from Earth hit the track in front of Ferb and Gretchen’s car, ahead of them. The car shot off on a new trajectory, away from Earth. The other three cars all followed it into deep space.

“You know, in retrospect, I question the decision to omit the emergency rockets from the individual cars," Phineas said.

Isabella nodded, concerned. "Is this sort of thing common?"

"Pretty much. Last year's tunnel coaster got attacked by mole people. We'll get out of it, don't worry."

"Any ideas how?"

Gretchen's voice came over the radio. "Hey, look, there's somebody coming toward us."

Indeed, Isabella saw a spacecraft getting larger. It pulled aside Phineas and Isabella's coaster car, and she could see it was piloted by an utterly adorable little white creature wearing a pink helmet.

"Meap!" it said.

"Oh, hey, Meap!" Phineas called. "We got knocked off-course by another random stray beam. Any chance you can give us a tow back to Earth?"

"Meap!"

"Did you lose your translator mustache again?" Phineas asked.

The creature rustled around in its spacecraft for a moment, then came up wearing a long, curly mustache. In a deep, masculine voice, it said, "Sorry about that, Phineas. Certainly, I'll give you folks a tow."

* * *

They landed in the back yard, and Meap asked to keep the space suits and coaster cars for a kiddy park back home. Just after he left, Linda came out with a plate of cookies, asking, “Who wants snacks?”

Phineas heard a familiar chattering sound behind him, and turned around. Before he could say anything, Isabella said, “Oh, there you are, Perry.”

Phineas grinned at Ferb, who said, “I told you she’d fit right in.”


	7. No Such Thing As Just An Ordinary Day

Isabella kept going over daily. Sometimes on weekends her mother came along and spent the day with Linda, playing music or just talking. ****

Phineas and Ferb’s sister, Candace, was home from college for the summer, but wasn’t around much; she had a summer job doing filing and secretarial work for a therapist that she hoped to work with when she got her degree. She was in a long-distance relationship with a boy named Jeremy, who had an internship with a record company in Los Angeles. On weekends, she sometimes tried to show her mother the things that Phineas and Ferb had built, but it was a half-hearted effort, and occasionally she'd just shrug and ignore what happened.

Isabella felt a bit like a third wheel sometimes, paired up with Phineas as the only single people in the group, but then he’d smile at her, and it all felt _right_.

She found herself idly wondering if maybe she should try to start a relationship with him. The very idea was ludicrous, of course, so she banished those thoughts as soon as they came up. He was Adyson’s ex. She didn’t need to prove anything by taking Adyson’s unwanted leftovers.

And then he’d smile at her again, and the idle thoughts returned. And she’d find herself smiling back.

* * *

Phineas wandered downstairs. He didn’t hear the faint  _*glingleglingle*_ that indicated Ferb was alone with Gretchen, so he knew he wouldn’t be interrupting anything. Perry sat in front of the door to Ferb’s room, so Phineas picked up the platypus and rubbed his head before knocking on the door.

Inside Ferb’s room, he heard Gretchen squeak as Ferb said, breathlessly, “Just a minute!”

Phineas chuckled as silence came from the room, then Ferb said, “Okay, come in.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you,” Phineas said. “I think Perry threw off your alarm.”

“What alarm?” Ferb asked nervously.

“Seriously?” Phineas asked. “It’s either an alarm for when someone comes downstairs while you two are down here together, or you’ve trapped the Glingleglingle Fairy.”

Gretchen blushed as Ferb chuckled. “Okay. What’s up?” Ferb asked.

“Can we do it tomorrow, Ferb?”

Ferb raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”

Not looking at Gretchen, Phineas said, “That thing we talked about. The surprise.” He’d been talking to Ferb about a romantic tunnel of love ride, which he could ride through with Isabella as Ferb rode through with Gretchen.

Ferb nodded in understanding. “Unlikely. Tomorrow evening is the Falling Stars Dance, and Gretchen's visiting her grandmother in the morning.”

Phineas sighed. “Oh, right, right. Gretchen asked you to the dance. Afternoon?”

Ferb said, “She wants to spend the time getting ready, right?” Gretchen nodded. “And Buford, Baljeet and I have plans, remember?” he added.

Phineas sighed. “Day after, then?”

Ferb shook his head as he looked up at Phineas. “It’s that important to you?”

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

“Then, yes, we can build it the day after tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Ferb. You’re the best. You two get back to what you were doing.” Phineas backed out, closed the door behind him, and carried Perry up the stairs.

* * *

"What'cha doin'?" Isabella asked as she came into the back yard the next morning. Phineas sat against the tree alone.

"Nothing much," he said. "The girls are all off getting ready for the dance tonight, so the guys are off having a 'bachelor day', as Buford put it."

"What dance?"

"The Falling Stars Girls' Choice Dance. It started a few years back, when there was a comet over the summer, but they've continued it since."

"Huh. I must have missed it."

"Yeah, I've never been. Candace loved it when she was younger, but she doesn't want to go without Jeremy. Ferb's really looking forward to it."

Isabella thought for a second. She really liked the idea of going with Phineas, but didn't want to push too hard. But...nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Want to go?" she asked. "Just as friends?"

Phineas's eyes got wide and a smile crept across his face. "Sure!"

* * *

Phineas led Isabella into the town hall, where the dance was being held.

"Thank you for inviting me, Isabella," he said. "I didn't get to come last year because Adyson and I weren't dating yet."

"I never realized this was happening."

They got to the dance floor, and Phineas shifted from one foot to another nervously. Isabella grinned at him, and asked, "Shall we dance?"

"Sure!" he said enthusiastically, then with forced casualness added, "I mean, if you want."

They danced a couple fast dances before Isabella felt an urge. "I need to go hit the ladies' room," she said. "I'll be right back."

He nodded as he took a seat off to one side, and she quickly found the restrooms and took care of her business.

As she was touching up her makeup in the mirror, Alex came in to the bathroom. "Was that Phineas I saw you dancing with, Isabella?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Seriously? Adyson's ex-boyfriend? Do you want to spend the rest of your life chasing after her?"

"We're just here as friends. We're not dating."

"I don't know that that's much of an improvement. Major step down from Dave, if you ask me."

"I didn't ask you," Isabella said, and left the bathroom. She spotted Phineas across the room; Adyson was talking to him animatedly.

* * *

Phineas watched Isabella walking away. She'd asked him to come to this as a friend, but maybe...just maybe...they'd part tonight as more than just friends. He had high hopes for a goodnight kiss, or maybe even one during a slow dance later. If he was reading her reactions right, she wouldn't mind at all.

"Phineas?" he heard a familiar voice ask. He looked up to see Adyson approaching, a disdainful look on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"Isabella asked you here?"

He nodded.

"Seriously? And you're going along with her weak little power trip?" Adyson asked, annoyed.

"What power trip?"

"Oh, please. It's obvious. She's trying to use you to get back at me over all the Fireside Girls fights we had, and you're going along with it to get back at me over the break-up."

"No, she's been hanging around all summer." Phineas's head reeled. Was she right? Was he really just interested to get back at Adyson? He didn't think so, but he wasn't sure he could trust his judgement.

"What'cha doin?" Isabella asked as she approached them.

"Just talking a bit," Adyson said. She glared at Isabella for a moment, then headed off to find her date again.

* * *

They'd dropped the girls off at their houses, and now Ferb and Phineas sat together in the back of their mother's minivan.

Phineas sighed. He had decided not to try for the kiss after all, after his talk with Adyson, and looking at Isabella's behavior the rest of the night, he suspected she preferred it that way.

_Adyson's right. Maybe I can be friends with Isabella, but romance would just be a stupid attempt at revenge. Isabella deserves better than that._

"Ferb?" he asked quietly, and saw his brother nod his head. "Cancel the tunnel of love for tomorrow. We'll think of something else to do."

Ferb paused a moment, and nodded his head again in response.

* * *

Isabella woke up the next morning, and made a decision.

_I don’t have to spend the whole summer with Phineas. I’ve got lots of other friends. I...just haven’t seen them all summer._

It was clearly time to fix that. After her shower, she sent a quick text to Melanie to see if she was interested in getting together.

The reply came back a few minutes later:

**Sorry, boyfriend is taking me to the lake today. Some other time!**

_Well, one isn’t a problem._ Another text got sent to Louisa, but there didn’t seem to be a reply.

She flipped through her phone. _Maybe I should try someone who went to Archer High?_

Shawna had been third-in-command, and close to her and Alex. Maybe that could work? She sent the message.

**Sure, Emilio and I were going to hang out at the Zillionplex Mall. Wanna meet us there?**

With a smile, she sent a quick reply: **See you there!**

* * *

Phineas stared at the giant projection screen blankly. They’d built a massive circle-vision movie theater, then used a time viewer to get images of cool things they’d done in the past. But while the movie had been great, and everyone had loved it, Phineas couldn’t help feeling like something was missing.

_Isabella_ , popped into his head.

“No,” he muttered to himself. “Not going there. She’s off...doing other things today. And so am I.”

It didn’t help how many of the things he’d seen had involved Adyson. He’d tried to focus on this summer, just to shift her out...which meant that Isabella showed up more prominently.

He walked out of the theater, which got hit by a blue beam as he exited, folded in on itself, and vanished. He looked back, spotting Perry just behind where it had been. “Oh, there you are, Perry,” he said dejectedly.

He’d swear the platypus looked concerned, but that was silly. _He’s just a platypus. They don’t do much._

* * *

Isabella hadn’t met Shawna’s boyfriend before, but Shawna gave her a big hug and introduced her to Emilio. Shawna had met him on the first day of high school; he’d stood up for her when someone had tried to bully her, and they’d started dating three days later.

Isabella watched the two of them as they walked through the mall together, Shawna’s chocolate-brown skin and Emilio’s lighter cinnamon coloring matching nicely as they held hands.

_I see the way they look at each other. I still want that. But...where do I find someone?_

An image of a red-haired boy came to mind, but she shook it off.

“Shawna?” she asked.

“Mm?”

“How long should you wait to try for somebody else’s ex-boyfriend?”

“Depends on the somebody else. Is she someone you like?”

“It’s Adyson.”

Shawna stopped walking and stared at Isabella. “So, that’s a ‘no’. Is it that funky inventor dude she hung out with?”

Isabella nodded, and Emilio laughed.

“What Adyson did doesn’t matter. Do what you want for you. What do you think of him?” Shawna asked.

“That’s...what I’m trying to figure out.”

“Ignore Adyson. If you like him, go for it.”

“Thanks, Shawna.”

* * *

She’d left Shawna and Emilio at the mall, with promises to get together again soon. They’d moved on to different lives now, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t keep in touch.

Tomorrow, she’d go back to the Flynn-Fletcher back yard and see what was up with Phineas. And maybe, with a bit of time, she could decide what she wanted to do about the boy.

* * *

Isabella wandered around Danville Park with her mother, enjoying the big end-of-summer festival that happened every Labor Day. School started tomorrow, but today she could just hang out at the festival.

“Hey, fancy meeting you here,” Phineas said behind her. She turned around to see him, dressed in jeans and wearing an unzipped fleece jacket. She’d just left him a few hours before; the boys had built another roller coaster to finish off the summer, this time using teleporter portals to randomize the ride.

She smiled at him. “Why are you wearing a jacket?” she asked. “It’s nice out.” She’d worn a short-sleeved blouse and knee-length skirt to enjoy the warm weather.

“I got into the habit a while back. It may come in handy,” he said.

“Mama, I’m going to hang out with Phineas for a bit, okay?” she asked her mother.

“That’s fine, Isa. Meet me at the car after the fireworks, okay?” her mother said with a knowing smile.

“Gracias, Mama,” Isabella said, taking Phineas’s hand and leading him away.

They rode on the carnival rides, and he tried to win her a stuffed animal by throwing rings onto bottletops.

“Ferb could do this, I bet,” Phineas muttered.

Isabella shook her head. “Here, let me try.” She took his last ring, weighed it in her hand, and gently tossed it toward a red-topped bottle. It bounced off, flipped up, and clattered off to one side.

“Ah, well,” Isabella said. “It was a nice effort.”

“You sure? I’ll try again,” Phineas said.

She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. Let’s go see what else they’ve got here.”

* * *

Phineas had enjoyed spending the afternoon with Isabella. The more time he spent with her, the more fascinating she became.

He saw Ferb and Gretchen off in the distance a couple times, carrying around one of the giant stuffed animals from the ring-toss booth. Ginger and Baljeet were helping at Baljeet’s Uncle Kamal’s Indian food booth. Baljeet made sure they had generous servings of curry with samosas on the side for dinner.

He’d spotted Adyson and Steve over at the classic car displays, and had guided Isabella away, but not before Adyson had looked up and seen them. He really didn’t want to deal with Adyson right now, though.

The shadows lengthened and then went away, and the wind picked up as darkness settled over the park. Isabella shivered a bit, rubbing her bare arms.

“Here,” he said, handing her his jacket.

“You’ll freeze,” she said, taking the jacket from him.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I got in the habit of wearing an extra jacket when I was dating Adyson.”

Isabella laughed. “Of course. Because she’s allergic to sleeves or something.”

“Pretty much,” Phineas agreed. “So I just took it upon myself to make sure she stayed warm.”

She looked up at him and smiled, wrapping the jacket around herself. “Thank you.”

He was trying to decide whether or not to lean in for a kiss when the first fireworks started going off overhead. He looked up, startled. Brilliantly colored explosions filled the sky. He looked back at Isabella, who was staring at the sky raptly. He took her hand and watched the fireworks with her.

* * *

He’d walked her back to the car, where her mother waited.

“See, I told you to bring a jacket, Isa,” her mother said with a smile from the driver’s seat.

“It’s okay,” Phineas said.

“Thank you,” Isabella said, taking off the jacket reluctantly and handing it back.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” Phineas said.

Isabella nodded eagerly. “Hasta mañana.” She climbed into the car, and watched Phineas waving from behind them as her mother drove them home.

* * *

Phineas knocked on Ferb’s door. “Come in,” Ferb said.

“Hey...you busy?” Phineas asked as he opened the door. Ferb was sitting at his computer, planning out his schedule for the next day. He shook his head as he turned toward Phineas.

Phineas sat on the bed. He took a deep breath and asked, “What do I do about Isabella?”

“Do you like her?”

“Of course I like her. What’s not to like? She’s funny, she’s smart, she’s brave, she’s a born leader who happens to be absolutely gorgeous...”

“So ask her out.”

“But Adyson and Isabella were practically at war for years. How do I go out with Isabella without thinking I’m doing it to spite Adyson?”

“Nothing you said about why you liked Isabella had anything to do with Adyson.”

“Huh?”

“You gave a list of what you liked about Isabella. Nothing on that list involved Adyson.”

Phineas stared off into space. “You’re right. It didn’t. But what do I do if Adyson asks about it?”

“Tell her it’s none of her business.”

“But...”

“Look, if it hadn’t been for Adyson sticking that stupid idea in your head at the summer dance, you two would have been dating since then. Just ask her out already.”

“Okay, okay. Sheesh.”


	8. New Beginnings

Isabella stopped to drop her books in her locker on the first day of school. Adyson was there already, and they eyed each other warily. ****

Adyson sighed, and looked at Isabella. “Can I...look, I know you don’t owe me anything here, but can we talk for a minute?”

Grudgingly, Isabella nodded.

“I saw you two together at the festival yesterday. I need to know this. Do you love Phineas? Like, really love him, and want to be with him forever?”

“What’s it to you?” Isabella asked.

“I don’t want him getting hurt.”

“What, that’s _your_ job?”

Adyson closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and shook her head. “I’m...do you know why we broke up?”

“You dumped him because you decided you didn’t love him after all.”

“No. It wasn’t that I didn’t love him. I _did_ love him, but...not enough.”

Isabella looked at her, confused.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into. I wanted a summer romance. But Phineas...Phineas does everything at 110%.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Including being in love. He doesn’t hold anything back. I figured we’d date for a few months and then move on. He fell hard, though, because that’s what he does. I tried to be what he needed. You have _no idea_ how hard I tried. But I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready for it yet. I’m just not ready for that much commitment.”

“But you are with Steve,” Isabella said.

“Steve knows this isn’t permanent. If it works out, and we stay together, great, but if not, we part with no hard feelings. There is no way to end a relationship with Phineas with no hard feelings.”

“So, you’re telling me not to date him,” Isabella noted, crossing her arms across her chest.

Adyson shook her head. “No. Not what I meant. I want him to be happy, and I think he could be happy with you.”

“You do?”

“Really. I just want you to know...don’t do it if you aren’t in for the long haul. Because if you go in and hurt him...you saw what Ferb did to me. And he’d known me forever. They’d rip you to pieces.”

Isabella nodded. “Why? Why are you telling me this?”

“Because he’s important to me. I messed up and he got hurt, and making sure you aren’t going to hurt him again like that...it’s the least I can do to make it up to him.”

Isabella looked into her locker. “I don’t know if it’s love yet. It’s too soon. But...I’d like to find out. I want to try.”

“That’ll do,” Adyson said. “It’s really too bad we were at each other’s throats so much. We’ve got too much in common to hate each other the way we did.”

Isabella chuckled. “You know, I found out - my parents almost moved across the street from Phineas and Ferb’s house when I was five.”

Adyson looked shocked. “Wait, but that means...”

“We’d have been in the same troop. With Phineas and Ferb helping.”

Adyson smiled. “We would have made one heck of a team, Isabella.”

* * *

Isabella sat in her first period English class, not paying attention to the teacher.

_What do I do about Phineas?_ she pondered.

She wanted to be with him. That much she knew. But why? Was she just trying to hurt Adyson?

An image came into her head - Phineas looking at her and smiling as they got ready for the fireworks. The look in his eyes said much more than either of their words ever had.

_I need to try it._

* * *

Phineas smiled at Isabella as she came and sat next to him in Tri-State Area History class. She looked nervous for some reason, which was odd. Even when giving oral reports in front of the class, Isabella didn’t look nervous.

“What’s up?” he asked, and she blushed adorably.

“I...” she began, then straightened her shoulders and said, “The first dance is girls’ choice this year. Would you be willing to go with me?”

“I’d love to,” he said, his heart beating a mile a minute. “As friends again? Or...”

“I was thinking as a date,” she said with a tentative smile.

“Yes, yes I would,” he agreed.

He didn’t think he’d seen anyone so relieved since Candace’s negative pregnancy test.

* * *

Her mother had given her a ride over to Phineas’s house. His father was giving them a ride to the dance while their mothers stayed home and talked. They’d picked up Gretchen on the way, who’d mouthed the words, “About time,” to her as she’d gotten in.

They’d gone out on the dance floor for a slow dance. Phineas’s hands on the small of her back were incredibly comforting, and she nestled her cheek into his shoulder as they swayed to the music. He gently kissed the top of her head, and she looked up at him with a smile.

He was looking down at her, a look that spoke of love and devotion and eternity, and she knew. She’d wanted that look ever since she’d known what romance was, and now...she had it.


End file.
